This invention relates generally to software distribution, and more particularly to a method of notifying a user of software updates using a software update notification channel.
Historically, the primary medium for software distribution has been either the traditional floppy disk or the more recent compact disc (CD-ROM). However, more and more individuals are acquiring software by downloading it from remote server computers connected to the client computers through the Internet. Additionally, companies and organizations are distributing software to their users across their local area networks. The physical medium is a network cable and the supporting communication hardware are the fixed cost associated with the establishment of the network. Therefore, distributing and installing software over an existing network bypasses the costly overhead of producing CDs or floppy disks.
In addition, using the network as the distribution medium profoundly reduces the software""s total cost of ownership to an extent that cannot be achieved by CDs or floppies even when the media cost almost nothing to manufacture. Software distribution via CDs and floppies obeys the xe2x80x9cpullxe2x80x9d paradigm, where every action is user-initiated. Distribution over the network has the ability to apply a xe2x80x9cpushxe2x80x9d paradigm which provides three main benefits.
First, the installation is xe2x80x9chands-freexe2x80x9d in that the user does not have to manually install the software. Second, the software can easily and timely be upgraded from a designated location because the burden of upgrading is borne by the software itself Third, because different types of computer hardware and operating systems can connect to a common network, software distributed over the network can be made to work across platforms or intelligent so that only the correct version of platform-specific software is pushed down to the user.
However, current methods of software distribution over a network do not fully exploit the benefits. Existing distribution of platform-specific, or xe2x80x9cnative code,xe2x80x9d software relies on installation file formats that are hard to create, not extensible, and specific to a particular operating system. Although most current software is written in modules, there is no current mechanism that handles the situation where one component in a software program requires the presence of another to operate. If a user downloads software from a Web page, the user may discover that the program requires an external library which necessitates another network session to download, assuming the user can find the right location, and then the user must manually install the library before installing the software.
Furthermore, software vendors today do not have a good infrastructure to notify users of their application about updates to their software, critical bug fixes, etc. If at the time of registering the software, the user can provide the vendor with an email address which the vendor can use to communicate information about upgrades to the user. However, few people actually register partially out of a concern that their anonymity will not be preserved and the fear of being xe2x80x9cspammedxe2x80x9d with junk email. Even if the software vendor has a web page that describes the updates, there is no compelling infrastructure that will make the user aware that the web page has changed or let the user know automatically at the time the application is used that an update is available.
The above-described shortcomings, disadvantages and problems are addressed by the invention by providing methods for allowing software vendors to automatically notify users of updates preferably when the application is being used by the user.
The invention described herein leverages channel architecture and Open Software Description (OSD) vocabulary to provide a way for the application vendor to subscribe the user to a software update channel that the vendor can use to notify users of software updates as they become available. At the time of installing the application, the user is prompted to subscribe to the software update channel. A shortcut (.lnk file) that the application installs is created with special information that identifies the application by a unique name. The channel is updated periodically based on the schedule suggested by the channel. When a new update is detected, the software channel delivers the software update to the user""s computer and sends notifications by, for example, email or gleaming the icon to indicate that a new software update is now available. Also, the next time the user launches the application through the shortcut (.lnk file), the shell automatically displays the update notification information to the user.